Beaches, rock pools, and coastal wetlands attract millions of recreational visitors whose activities disturb nesting birds, displace seals, and damage invertebrate communities.
Coastal recreation places welfare pressure on wildlife that is both direct — flushing seals from haul-out sites, disturbing nesting birds, crushing rock pool invertebrates — and cumulative, as individual disturbance events that seem minor aggregate into chronic stress for resident animal communities. Seals repeatedly flushed into the sea by approaching visitors experience sustained stress with physiological costs. Shorebirds disturbed during incubation may desert nests or leave eggs exposed to temperature extremes. The welfare response requires both individual behaviour change — approaching seals and nesting birds at safe distances — and land management solutions including seasonal exclusion zones during critical periods.